Adjustable coat hanger



Jan. 14, 1958 J. L. THURBER ADJUSTABLE COAT HANGER 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 2. 1954 INVENTOR JAM E5 L. THURBEJZ ATTORNEY Jan. 14,1958 J. L. THURBER ADJUSTABLE coA'r HANGER Filed June 2, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR JAMss L. THUQ ER ATTORNEY United States Patent ADJUSTABLE COAT HANGER James L. Thurber, Denver, Colo.

Application June 2, 1954, Serial No. 433,979

1 Claim. (Cl. 223-89) This invention relates to clothes hangers and particularly to clothes hangers having adjustable and removable pads for firmly supporting the shoulders of a coat or the like against wrinkling or crushing while it is supported on the hanger.

There have, heretofore, been various attempts to provide a clothes hanger having adjustable or removable shoulder pads, however, all of these prior devices have either been too complex, thereby involving expensive manufacturing problems which made the hangers commercially infeasible, or else they have been of such flimsy and unsoundly arranged construction that they were not easy to handle, were broken easily and were impossible to adequately repair.

One object of this invention is to provide a clothes hanger which is simple in construction and easy to assemble and use.

Another object of this invention is to provide a clothes hanger having shoulder pads which are easily adjusted or quickly removed if necessary.

Other objects of this invention are to provide an improved device of the character described, that is easily and economically produced, which is sturdy in construction, and which is highly eflicient in operation.

With the above and related objects in view, this invention consists in the details of construction and combination of parts as will be more fully understood from the following description, when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is a front elevational View of a hanger embodying the invention.

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the hanger of Fig. 1,

Fig. 3 is a side elevational view of the hanger of Fig. 1,

Fig. 4 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken on line 44 of Fig. 1,

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary perspective view of an end portion of the hanger of Fig. 1 before it is completely assembled,

Fig. 6 is a perspective view, similar to Fig. 5, but showing the hanger after assembly, parts being omitted,

Fig. 7 is a partially exploded perspective view of a second embodiment of the invention,

Fig. 8 is a front view of the hanger of Fig. 7, partly in section and partly in elevation,

Fig. 9 is a cross-sectional view of the hanger taken on line 9-9 of Fig. 8.

Referring now in greater detail to the drawings wherein similar reference characters refer to similar parts, there is shown a hanger, generally indicated at 10 comprising a rod 12 of generally inverted V-shape, this rod being slightly concave, as indicated best in Figs. 4, 5 and 6. The rod 12, which is adapted to support a coat or the like, may be made of wood, metal, plastic, glass, cardboard, or the like, depending on the purpose for which the hanger is to be used.

A cross-bar 14, adapted to hold a pair of. folded-over trousers, shirt, or the like, is connected. at either end 16 and 18 to the rod 12, the connection being either by 2,819,828 Patented Jan. 14, 1958 welding, soldering, gluing, nailing, bolting, screwing, jointing, or the like, depending on the material of which the hanger is constructed. The rod 12 and cross-bar 14 may even be made integral with each other, if desired.

At the apex 20 of the inverted V-shaped rod 12, an opening 22 is provided, and through this opening extends the straight stem 24 of a hook 26. A flange or knob 28 is provided at the end of portion 24 to act as a stop to prevent the hook from falling out of the opening 22.

At each end of the rod 12 is provided a flap, indicated at 30 at one end and at 32 at the other end. These flaps 30 and 32 are connected to the main portion of the rod 12 by flexible connecting strips 34 and 36. If the rod 12 is made of relatively flexible material such as sheet metal, the various flexible types of plastic, or cardboard, the flaps 30 and 32 and strips 34 and 36 may be integral with the main portion of the rod, however, if the rod is made of glass, wood or of any of the various rigid types of plastics, the connecting strips, which may or may not be integral with the flaps may be made of flexible material separable from the rod 12. In any event, the flaps 30 and 32 are provided for the purpose of acting as limit stops to keep the shoulder-pad assemblies 38 and 40, to be hereinafter more fully described, on the rod 12.

The pad assemblies 38 and 40 are identical, and the description of one serves as a description of the other. Viewing pad assembly 38 as an example, therefore, it is seen that this pad assembly comprises a pad 42 which, in plan view, is tapered outwardly, as best seen in Fig. 2 and which has outwardly tapered sides 44, as best seen in Fig. 4, in combination with a pair of walls 48 and 50 depending from bottom surface 46 of the pad, and having oppositely extending lateral flanges 52 and 54. These walls 48 and 50 together with their respective flanges 52 and 54, combine to form a channel member, generally indicated as 56. This channel member 56 is adapted to slidably embrace the inclined walls of the rod 12, as best illustrated in Fig. 4. The pad 42 may be constructed of either resilient or rigid material and may be formed either integrally with or separably from the channel member 56, this channel member being also either resilient or rigid.

The pad assemblies 38 and 40 are assembled on the rod 12 by sliding the channel members onto the rod 12 from either end of the rod with the pad uppermost. At this time, the flaps 30 and 32 are in the common inclined plane of their corresponding portions of the rod 12, as shown in Fig. 5. After the pad assemblies have been inserted onto the rod, the flaps are bent down as shown in Fig. 6, and as also indicated in Fig. 1. When the flaps are bent down in this manner, they act as limit stops to prevent the channel members on the pad assemblies from sliding off the rod. In this simple manner, the pad assemblies may be assembled or taken off the hanger merely by bending the flaps up to enable the pad assemblies to slide on or off, or by bending the flaps down to prevent the pad assemblies from sliding olf. If it is desired to mount the pad assemblies for adjustment on the hanger, the sliding fit between the channel members and the inclined walls of the rod 12 is made tight enough to cause the channel members to frictionally bind against the rod, but yet loose enough to permit relative sliding movement when a longitudinally directed force is exerted on the pad assemblies.

The embodiment of the invention illustrated in Figs. 7, 8 and 9 comprises a hanger, generally indicated as 100, consisting of a coat supporting, inverted V-shaped member 102 and a crossbar 104 between the ends of the V-shaped member. The member 102 comprises two parallel rails 106, each of which have off-set ends at 108 and 110 which are integrally joined at apex joints 112 and 114. The cross-bar 104 is inserted at either end within the corresponding apex portions of the off-set ends, these ends of the cross-bar being either soldered, welded, or otherwise fixed in position Within the ofi-set portions. Cross-struts 116 are provided at the junction of the ofl-set portions 108 and 110 with the rails 106. At the apex of the V-shaped member 102 are provided a pair of parallel cross-struts 118 extending between the rails 106 to define an opening 120. The straight stem 122 of a hook 124 extends through the opening 120 and is held from pulling through the opening by flange 126 formed at the end thereof. dotted outline position of the hook 124 in Fig. 8 illustrates the manner in which the hook is removed or inserted through the opening 120.

The pad assemblies 128 each comprise a pad 130, similar in configuration to pads 38 and 40, and a mounting unit 132. The pad assemblies 128 are each positioned on the hanger by placing the pad 130 on top of the rails 106 and then inserting the flange 134 of the mounting unit between the rails and up against the bottom surface 136 of the pad. Screws 138 arethen inserted through openings 140 in the mounting unit to connect the mounting unit to the pad. Mounting unit 132 may also be connected to pad 130 by nails, glue, doweling, jointing, or may be integrally constructed, or the like. In this manner, the pads are slidable between the rails 106 which act as guides for the flange. The cross-struts 116 act as limit stops to prevent the pad assemblies from sliding 011 the hanger.

Although this invention has been described in considerable detail, such description is intended as being illustrative rather than limiting, since the invention may be variously embodied, and the scope of the invention is to be determined as claimed.

The

Having thus set forth and disclosed the nature of this invention, what is claimed is:

A clothes hanger comprising a V-shaped member formed of a pair of parallel rails, a hook extending upwardly at the apex of said V-shaped member, an off-set portion at each end of said V-shaped member, each of said off-set portions comprising the end portions of said rails, bent out of the plane of the main portion of the rails and inclined toward each other to form a V-shaped portion, a cross-bar extending between the opposite ends of said V-shaped member, the ends of said cross-bar being fixed within said V-shaped portions, a cross-strut extending between the rails at the junction of the main portions of said rails and the off-set portions thereof, a pad slidably mounted on each arm of said V-shaped members, a block removably secured to each paid, a pair of oppositely disposed flanges on each of said blocks and positioned on the side of said rails opposite said pads, said blocks being slidably positioned between the rails of said V-shaped member, said cross-struts being adapted to limit the movement of said pads on said V-shaped member.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 364,803 Christian June 14, 1887 395,884 Donaldson Jan. 8, 1889 892,149 Gould JuneSO, 1908 1,320,445 Butrick Nov. 4, 1919 2,562,368 Robison et al. July 3, 1951 2,582,669 Battle Jan. 15, 1952 

